Afghanistan‘s Asghar Afghan will retire from all formats of the game after his team’s Super 12 match in the T20 World Cup against Namibia on Sunday. The match was played at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.

In a statement, the Afghanistan Cricket Board said that it accepted the 33-year-old Asghar’s decision to retire. The cricket board said that it “expresses gratitude for his services to the country.”

Talking about Asghar’s decision to hang up his boots, Afghanistan’s captain at the T20 World Cup Mohammad Nabi said he was sad to learn about his “good friend”. He described him as one of the shining stars of Afghan cricket.

Asghar, who scored 440 runs in six test matches at an average of 44.00, was the captain in Afghanistan’s inaugural Test match against India in 2018. He has also played 114 one-day internationals, scoring 2424 runs at an average of 24.73. In 74 T20s, Asghar made 1351 runs at a strike rate of 110.37 with an average of 21.79.

Asghar with 42 wins as captain holds the unique record of most wins as captain in international T20s with nine losses and one tied game. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is now the mentor of the Indian team at the T20 World Cup, won 41 T20s as captain of the national team.

Afghanistan vs Namibia

Afghanistan captain Nabi won the toss and elected to bat against Namibia on a dry pitch. Winning the toss, Nabi said, “We’ll bat first. The wicket looks really good to bat on. Feeling really good after the performance in the last game. A lot of plus points, the boys played really well. Asghar’s service in the last 16 years has been great. He has promoted a lot of cricket for Afghanistan. Mujeeb is unfit and Hamid Hassan will be playing.”

Afghanistan at T20 World Cup

In its first Group 2 match, Afghanistan recorded a massive 130-run win against Scotland before losing by five wickets against Pakistan when Asif Ali smashed four sixes.